Mr Pye

I watched it when was younger and loved it! Glad channel 4 have it to watch it again!

Derek Jacobi is superb as the unforgettable Mr Pye. The island setting is equally unforgettable. Brilliant from first to last. Mr Pye's battle with his angelic self, his attempts to overcome what at first he sees as an unfortunate side-effect of it by becoming devilish, the wonderful denouement, and the quirky, Peake-ish scenes along the way live in the memory. I only wish the BBC would release the whole series on DVD. I would love to be able to see it again and again every so often. When it first screened, that evening was a definite 'do nothing else', just settle down and indulge the look forward impatiently till the next episode the following week. It was one of those shows that you wonder about before the first scenes roll, continue to wonder about as they do, then find yourself caught up in and immersed in.

I thought this was superb when I first saw it and ended up taping it and re-watching it so many times that my tape broke! And I have been waiting for it to be released, but the BBC seem to want to forget it actually exists...

I looked through their entire site, and found nothing. I even emailed them asking for a releases date or reason for non-release. Still nothing. In fact, there seems to be no mention other than on this website (thank goodness for IMDb!)

Really frustrating, considering that it was such a landmark series at the time.

Excellent film, but not made by, or for, the BBC , but for Channel Four, which may explain the other reviewers problems in tracing it. CH4 has shown repeats etc. A strange and wonderful story, full of mystery,and of course somewhat unresolved, which was what Peake intended in his morality tale. His other work has not been well filmed, the BBC did try, but failed. Derek Jacobi was sublime in the lead role as Mr Pye, a role he carried in the face of the unusual story context set in the idyllic Channel Island of Sark. Judy Parfitt was the perfect foil for his character, a masterly piece of acting to match Derek Jacobi's leading role.

This looks very dated now with dismal special effects. The storyline is uninspiring but might have been a bit racy when more people believed in Christ & Satan. One of Jacobi's hammier turns.